• Unveiled by Apple globally earlier this week, the new 15″ MacBook Air is now available for pre-order locally.
• No specific shipping date is mentioned, but the notebook is expected to ship in late-June.
• The 15″ MacBook Air is powered by Apple’s M2 chip and comes in either 256Gb or 512GB SSD options.

Earlier this week Apple unveiled some new hardware in the form of a 15″ MacBook Air. Christened the world’s thinnest 15″ notebook at 11.5mm, you may have missed that announcement as Apple debuted its first-ever augmented reality headset on the same night.

While the Vision Pro is only expected early next year, the new 15″ MacBook Air is already up for pre-order locally.

iStore South Africa issued email notifications to its subscribers earlier to day of the pre-order status, highlighting that pre-orders are open for the new Mac Studio too, which is available in both the M2 Max and M2 Ultra iterations.

Back to the notebook and it is powered by Apple’s M2 chip, which featured on refreshed MacBook models at the beginning of the year.

Checking out the pre-order page shows that pricing starts R30 999 for the 256GB SSD option, and rises to R35 999 for the 512GB SSD flavour. In terms of colour options, the full gamut is present, including Starlight and Midnight.

Other notable elements on the notebook include up to 18 hours of battery life thanks to the 66.5-watt‑hour lithium‑polymer unit inside this latest device. It also supports charging via MagSafe, as well as two Thunderbolt ports, a USB 4 and USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, and 3.5mm headphone jack, so no need to worry about dongles.

In terms of performance Apple says the new 15″ model is 15 times faster than any other Intel-powered MacBook Air, along with touting a 15.3″ LED-backlit display (2880×1864) that offers support for 1 billion colours.

Whether all of this is worth R30 999 remains up for debate, but if you’re interested in getting your hands on Apple’s newer silicon-powered products, this might be one of the more “affordable” options.